It states the following: "I think audiophiles and photographers (professional and amateur) have much in common"

I agree!

Shotcents wrote:

lazy lightning wrote:

I have tested and owned all of the Nikkor 85's, except for 1.8D. The best of them for me by a wide margin is the 85 1.4G. I guess I'm used to looking at large prints of my fashion portraits. The 1.8G is far to clinical and cool for a classic portrait lens. The 1.4D was my favorite and I had to try real hard not to like the output from the 1.4G better, but it didn't work. The 1.4G, due to the better sharpness, color and micro-contrast really makes the subject pop! I used to like the warm, dreamy, softish portrait look and still do to an extent but I can achieve that in post if I need. The rubbish about the 1.4D's bokeh being better than 1.4G's is just that, rubbish. For those of you "who see little difference" between the 1.8G and the 1.4G, if you say it enough you might start believing it I suppose.

Sorry, Lazy...

I've tested all of these lenses. It's fair for you to say which lens YOU like, but the rest is all subjective.

Except the Sharpness! The 85mm 1.8G is sharper on a D800 or D800e.

Except the Bokeh! The 85mm 1.4G has bokeh that is a notch beyond the 1.8G.

What you call clinical I call "real" and exactly what I want from a portrait lens. The dreamy quality of the 1.4G is not to my taste. I view it as a lens for shooting babies in a studio.

As for the 1.4D, I also owned that lens and it absolutely makes the new 1.4G look clinical by comparison, so I know why some of my friends continue to prefer it over all others. The 1.4D is even better for those studio baby shots!

In the end and looking at things more practically, the 1.8G and 1.4G lenses are so close it's pretty tough to tell them apart in real world shooting without pixel peeping. It's nothing remotely close to the IQ disparity that existed between the older versions.

For candids and portraits I find that the sharpness and AF speed is more important than the 1.4G bokeh advantage. Mind you, these are BOTH great lenses, but this is not a case where one lens wins on all fronts. Both have specific strengths. Choose according to taste and don't play "class warrior" games with lenses!